“We Process Over 11% Of Global Mobile Money Transactions Every Day”

Shailendra Naidu Somarouthu, CEO, OBOPAY discusses about his platform and how it is making difference in the Indian market

- Anushruti Singh

How has been the journey of OBOPAY so far? 

OBOPAY started in 2005 in the US market with a license to do interstate money transfer services using a mobile phone. That is the genesis of OBOPAY. We have built our own wallet way back in 2005 in the US market. After a couple of years, the traction was a little slow, not as per what we wanted it to be. This prompted us to look at emerging markets and thus we entered the Africa Market.

We started our Africa operations in Cameroon and in Senegal. We came to India in 2008. This was the year we launched Nokia Money. Nokia Money is probably India’s first prepaid instrument of a wallet way back then.

In 2013, a couple of serial investors had picked up OBOPAY. Post 2013, we have refocused from being a B2C company to a B2B company. We realized that across markets, the telecoms and the banks are entering the space in a big way. It may be a bit challenging for a non-telecom and non-bank entity to build a brand and build distribution because distribution is one of the critical success factors for running any large and successful mobile money ecosystem

So we started partnering with large telcos, banks and independents. We have worked with clients in Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Cameroon, Senegal, Mexico, India, Bangladesh and in the Middle East.

Last year, we focused on entering India especially around demonetization phase which triggered the whole Indian business journey.

While we are looking at other markets, we applied for a prepaid instrument license in India last year. We have been awarded a provisional prepaid instrument license by the Central Bank. We are going through our certifications as we speak right now.